Saturday prime time slot for Premier League

A selection of Premier League football matches will be played in a new 7:45pm slot on Saturdays under the terms of a new broadcast package from the 2019-20 season.

Broadcasters will bid for rights to show 200 live matches, more than 50 per cent of the league’s 380 games and an increase on the current deal’s 168 shared by Sky Sports and BT Sport.

Seven different packages of matches will go out to tender and, of those, one will contain 20 games consisting of two midweek programmes and another will include a midweek and a bank holiday fixture schedule. Another package reportedly includes eight Saturday night matches – the first time Premier League will air in a Saturday day prime time slot. A commitment to not broadcast games between 2:45pm and 5:15pm on Saturdays will remain.

An invitation to tender for the various packages of games will be followed by the winning bids being chosen by the end of February. Amazon and Facebook are both expected to join the bidding.